Tweets,

As John mentioned the Snoqualmie-Preston Trail definitely has two distinct sections. My property borders the section between the trail head at Preston and the intersection with Preston-Fall City Road. I walk or bike the trail just about every day - sometimes doing the entire trail from Preston to the overlook of Snoqualmie Falls (10 miles round trip). The section between the Preston trailhead and where the trail crosses Preston-Fall City Road is a bit more habitat diverse than the Lake Alice section of the trail. The Preston-Fall City section also borders Department of Natural Resources land on the west side of trail.

The DNR lands are on very steep slopes topping out on Mitchell Hill. One of the great things about this section is that there is still some old growth forest here and even the second growth is more than 90 years old. This means GIANT trees - Douglas and Grand Firs and Western Hemlock some with 5 foot diameters. Big Western Red Cedars, a few Pacific Silver Firs, and even Western Yew. Massive Big Leaf Maples holding a wide variety of epiphytes (ferns, mosses, huckleberries, etc) and Vine Maples so draped in mosses that in places the trail looks as if it were in the Hoh forest rather than only 20 miles from Seattle (Preston does get 100+ inches of rain a year on average). The plants here are as worth observing as the birds IMHO. For those who have an eye for such things you can also see some of the native Orchids from the trail, and some other relatively rare plants.

This section of the trail also occasionaly daylights out to fields/lots below the trail. One place, where the giant power lines cross the trail just North of Preston, is a great place to see flycatchers, Orioles, and raptors. I have seen California Quail here as well as Ruffed Grouse. There is a resident Northern Pygmy Owl here who responds well to tapes/imitations.

I have a bird list of 121 birds I've seen from the trail (good flyovers include Swans, Sandhill Cranes, Golden Eagle, and Prarie Falcon). It is worth checking out - if nothing else a great walk. But DO DO DO be aware of your surroundings - as John experienced on the other side of the trail this morning bears are not just common but numerous in this area and are pretty brazen. I carry a whistle and spray with me. We get bears in our yard or fields every night. Last fall I also saw a small cougar sitting on a large stump about 50 yards above the trail just watching the people go by.

So, come out, have a look and enjoy this really special place. Right now the trail is rife with Warblers (Wilson's, Yellow, Orange Crowned, Black Throated Grey and Townsends), Thrushes (Hermit, Swainson's, and a few late Varied along with Gazillions of Robins), Western Tanagers and both Black Headed and Evening Grosbeaks). Steller's Jay, Ravens, and Pileated, Downy, and Hairy Woodpeckers are common as are Red Breasted Sapsuckers and Flickers. I've just started seeing Empids this week...

Preston-Snoqualmie Trail - A birdy place!

Cheers and Good Birding

Rob
Rob Conway Preston / Fall City, WAlatitude 47 32' 20" , longitude -121 54' 42" robin_birder at hotmail.com


From: johntubbs at comcast.netTo: tweeters at u.washington.eduDate: Sat, 17 May 2008 05:39:10 +0000Subject: [Tweeters] Snoqualmie-Preston Trail Walk
Hi Everyone,

This morning I decided to stroll from the Lake Alice Road trailhead on the Snoqualmie-Preston Trail to the Snoqualmie Falls lookout at the end of the trail (1.8 miles one way, all on paved surface). This trail is essentially level and paved the whole way, so is an easy walk. It is pretty one-dimensional habitat, so not the place to go for a high species count - most of it is mature mixed forest, with a substantial percentage of conifers. There are a few small streams running off of Snoqualmie Ridge under the trail, and a power line and a couple of other successional habitat that provides some edges for species that don't like the mature woods.

Totaled only 20 species for the walk, nothing rare, but had some very nice looks at some good species, and it was an excellent morning for working on birding by ear. There were tons of birds singing - most notably WILSON'S WARBLERS, which seemed to be everywhere. Some presumably will be breeding here, but others were in forest away from their preferred breeding habitat, so probably migrating. Other singing or calling species at which I also had good looks included: PILEATED WOODPECKER, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, SWAINSON'S THRUSH (few songs, but many doing their call notes) and WESTERN TANAGERS (WETA) calling constantly. After hearing everyone rave about the number of WETA's migrating through the area this year, I was beginning to feel deprived until this morning. There were sizable flocks of the birds moving through the treetops all along the trail. Again, few were singing but the 'purdaDIK' call notes were s! ounding constantly throughout the woods. Ditto with BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, which were everywhere and singing as well, including one bird who appeared to be going for the Guiness Book of World Records for length of a single song. I also had my best looks ever at BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS in one of the brushy areas, where a pair of birds flew down to forage in low brush very near to where I was watching. SONG SPARROWS were in abundance, and offered a good chance to study some individual song variations between birds.

The morning included one unnerving encounter with a large black bear. I walked off the trail at one point trying to get a better look at a bird and instead of finding a bird, the brush exploded only about twenty feet away from me and I watched a very large bear butt fortunately heading away from me. Being cub season, I was very lucky this was either a female with no family or a male. The adrenaline was pumping pretty good there for a few minutes.

This trail is fairly lightly used and perhaps worth checking out for some of you. A better stretch of the trail, per Rob Conway who lives quite near it, is the stretch between the Preston trail head and its intersection with Fall City-Preston Road. The habitat on that stretch is more varied than the stretch I walked today, and it is closer to a sizable stream (the Raging River) for most of its distance.

It was certainly a gorgeous morning to be out and about.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com





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